"Now the necessary Consequence of that which we have hitherto said
is
this, That it is so far from being true, that all Moral Good and Evil,
Just and Unjust are meer Arbitrary and Factitious things, that are
created
wholly by Will; that (if we would speak properly) we must needs say
that
nothing is Morally Good or Evil, Just or Unjust by meer Will without
Nature,
because every thing is what it is by Nature, and not by Will. For
though
it will be objected here, that when God, or Civil Powers Command a
Thing
to be done, that was not before†1 obligatory or unlawful, the thing
Willed
or Commanded doth forthwith become†2 Obligatory, that which ought to be
done by Creatures and Subjects respectively; in which the Nature of
Moral
Good or Evil is commonly Conceived to consist. And therefore if all
Good
and Evil, Just and Unjust be not the Creatures of meer Will (as many
assert)
yet at least Positive things must needs owe all their Morality, their
Good
and Evil to meer Will without Nature: Yet notwithstanding, if we well
Consider
it, we shall find that even in Positive Commands themselves, meer Will
doth not make the thing commanded Just or Obligatory, or beget and
create
any Obligation to Obedience; but that it is Natural Justice or Equity,
which gives to one the Right or Authority of Commanding, and begets in
another Duty and Obligation to Obedience. Therefore it is observable,
that
Laws and Commands do not run thus, to Will that this or that thing
shall
become Just or Unjust, Obligatory or Unlawful; or that Men shall be
obliged
or bound to obey; but only to require that something be done or not
done,
or otherwise to menace Punishment to the Transgressors thereof. For it
was never heard of, that any one founded all his Authority of
Commanding
others, and others Obligation or Duty to Obey his Commands, in a Law of
his own making, that men should be Required, Obliged, or Bound to Obey
him. Wherefore since the thing willed in all Laws is not that men
should
be Bound or Obliged to Obey; this thing cannot be the product of the
meer
Will of the Commander, but it must proceed from something else; namely,
the Right or Authority of the Commander, which is founded in natural
Justice
and Equity, and an antecedent Obligation to Obedience in the Subjects;
which things are not Made by Laws, but pre-supposed before all Laws to
make them valid: And if it should be imagined, that any one should make
a positive Law to require that others should be Obliged, or Bound to
Obey
him, every one would think such a Law ridiculous and absurd; for if
they
were Obliged before, then this Law would be in vain, and to no Purpose;
and if they were not before Obliged, then they could not be Obliged by
any Positive Law, because they were not previously Bound to Obey such a
Person's Commands: So that Obligation to Obey all Positive Laws is
Older
than all Laws, and Previous or Antecedent to them. Neither is it a
thing
that is arbitrarily Made by Will, or can be the Object of Command, but
that which either Is or Is not by Nature. And if this were not Morally
Good and Just in its own Nature before any Positive Command of God,
That
God should be Obeyed by his Creatures, the bare Will of God himself
could
not beget an Obligation upon any to Do what he Willed and Commanded,
because
the Natures of things do not depend upon Will, being not things that
are
arbitrarily Made, but things that Are. To conclude therefore, even in
Positive
Laws and Commands it is not meer Will that Obligeth, but the Natures of
Good and Evil, Just and Unjust, really existing in the World."